


Those Who Remain

by wundernerd



Category: Bleach
Genre: Angst, Canon-Compliant, Drabble, Gen, Spoilers for Ch. 685, Survivor Guilt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-05
Updated: 2016-08-05
Packaged: 2018-07-29 10:04:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7680199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wundernerd/pseuds/wundernerd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Endurance. It was both his gift and his bane.</p>
<p>---</p>
<p>Kyouraku reflects on life and loss. Drabble. Major spoilers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Those Who Remain

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter 685 was a very emotional chapter for me and I felt drawn to write something. I haven't written Bleach fanfiction in over twelve years, and I've never written Kyouraku before, but I hope I did his character justice.

Endurance. It was both his gift and his bane.

With every war, every battle, there were two types of victims: casualties, and survivors. 

Kyouraku had always known this, and throughout his life he had been reminded again and again which category he fit into. When he closed his eyes at the end of a long day, streams of faces played across his memory like a film. 

He remembered. He endured. He continued as a living vessel, carrying the lives of those who had gone before him. 

"Ne, Ukitake....it's hard to think this place was ever as torn up as it used to be now, eh?" 

Kyouraku Shunsui muttered as he bent to sit at the memorial. His grey eyes creased at the edges, heavy with centuries of loss and loneliness. He brushed a hand across the inscription on the stone. 

"So today's the big day, crazy how time flies. Rukia's still really nervous about the ceremony, but if I remember correctly so were you, way back then." 

He smiled, a sad but knowing smile, as he sat next to the gravestone of his friend and recounted tales of the past few days, only pausing to refill the tiny saucer on his knee once in a while. 

"You'd be proud of her. Of all of us. I know you would, my dear friend." He sighed, a exhalation somewhere between contentment and weariness. He brushed his hand across the stone again, feeling it's coldness, stopping and pressing against it as if he was trying to absorb some of it's strength. He would endure, just as this stone would.

"Ne, Ukitake. The world is quieter without you in it. Wish you were here."


End file.
